“You don’t want any part of their beautifulness to touch anything gross.” This is how Cotuit’s Sarah Goode, owner of handmade children’s clothing and accessory line Tess and Tallulah, describes her initial inspiration. Goode and her husband were traveling in the Caribbean with their then just months-old son Jack, where the experience of changing his diaper in so many hotel and airport bathrooms with a too-small changing mat was taking its toll. When they returned to the Cape, Goode decided to sew a larger mat for her son, and added a hooded towel while she was at it. “Most of the hooded towels you find in stores are so thin,” Goode claims. “I wanted to make something thicker and nicer.” The items immediately caught the eyes of her other mommy friends, and requests started coming in. She also made a few sets for baby showers. Goode found solace in sewing, which she said “helps me keep my sanity from dirty diapers and laundry,” and she decided to try plying her creations at an Osterville craft fair. She sold out. Soon she introduced dresses for friends who had little girls, and then ties, so that there was something for boys. She started going to more and more craft shows, on and off Cape. This was the summer of 2007, and things have been moving along pretty quickly ever since. Or, at least, as quickly as she lets them. “I’m just a stay-at-home mom,” Goode said with a laugh. “It’s all very loosey-goosey.” While Goode readily admits she “doesn’t really like the business side of it all,” she also wouldn’t mind growing, as long as she could “keep her hands in it,” and feels the ideal situation would be finding someone to handle the wholesale side of things while she focused on creative projects. Goode has been known to stay up until four in the morning sewing to keep up with demand, and “tries to finagle shipments and deliveries between my mom and husband.” Using signature bright and colorful fabrics, Tess and Tallulah’s items are available in about 14 retail locations, from Pocketful of Posies in Osterville to stores in South Carolina and Texas. She added a retail Web site to keep up with calls coming in from people who had seen her items at shows and wanted to order more. Goode, whose studio is attached to her home, also works as an esthetician. “I just love taking care of people,” she explained. It can all lead to a pretty full schedule. “I almost feel that the more you have on your plate, the more you get done,” she mused. She says that once her son goes to school, she’ll likely focus more on growing the business, and has aspirations of adding items like pants to the line, but noted, “Tess and Tallulah was totally started on a whim, and I’m really just kind of going with it”. Through it all, Goode maintains that her number one priority is motherhood. “Right now I’m living in Jack’s world,” Goode explained, “and it’s a very magical way of living.”